APRIL 19, 2010 ISTE MOBILE APP
Long before I attend an ISTE conference, I research the schedule for workshops and sessions that I might attend. I like to use the latest technology available to help me make good choices. The conference is huge and there is so much going on all the time that unless I make decisions in advance, I might miss out on some unique opportunities to network with other educators. And that leads me to discuss a new app for either the iPod or iPhone--ISTE Mobile app.
Using the free ISTE Mobile app, conference goers can network with other educators, get up-to-the-minute news through blogs and Twitter updates, and gain access to a valuable set of educational resources such as ISTE's ed tech standards, articles, and podcasts.
Sometimes a session is full or may not align with my expectations, so I will be able to find other sessions by strand, author, date and time. How exciting that this app is available this year! Teachers who are not attending ISTE will find the app a useful way to connect and feel part of the conference.
APRIL20, 2010 REGIONAL RECEPTION INVITATION
We have been invited to participate in a regional reception (CO, AZ, NM, UT & WY) at the ISTE Conference on Tuesday, June 29th, from 5:30-7:30 pm. AZTEA has organized it and has 4 sponsors which are covering the cost for the event. It will be held at the Lucky Strike Bowling Alley which is only 3 blocks from the convention center. There will be no cost to us and any UCET member is invited to attend. Register here: http://tinyurl.com/ISTERegRec. APRIL21, 2010 AFFILIATE MEETING
Affiliate leaders are planning the Affiliate Annual Meeting to be held at ISTE 2010 on Saturday, June 26. Designated representatives and liaisons as well as other leaders from ISTE’s 81 Affiliates are invited to attend. It is a full day of networking, training, collaborating, and learning. It is the one day per year Affiliate leaders can meet face to face. As 2011 President-elect of UCET, I will attend the Affiliate meeting along with Jared Covili, 2012 President-elect.
Each Affiliate member brings a gift basket. At the meeting, we trade gift baskets with another affiliate. I am looking for ideas for items to put in the Utah basket that represent "the real Utah". So far I have: a CD of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, salt water taffy, and a Snowbird Sk Resort hat. All Affiliates put in some kind of alcoholic beverage. I think I will put in some water bottles. :-) APRIL29, 2010 ISTE MAGAZINE: LEADING & LEARNING
ISTE's member magazine features practical ideas for using today's technology tools to improve teaching and learning, and for integrating technology appropriately into classrooms, curriculum, and administration: Leading & Learning.
Leading up to the ISTE conference, I think one of the most important articles this month is "Voices Carry: Top 10 in 2010 Ed Tech Advocacy Issues"
ISTE has identified 10 ed tech priorities that U.S. decision makers should consider in 2010:
1. Technology in education is the backbone of school improvement.
2. Leverage educational technology as a gateway to college and career readiness.
3. Ensure technology experts are infused throughout our schools and classrooms.
4. Invest in preservice education technology.
5. Classroom technology skills are a prerequisite to being a highly effective teacher.
6. Leverage technology to scale improvement.
7. Provide high-speed broadband for all.
8. Boost student learning through data and assessment efforts.
9. Invest in ongoing research and development.
10. Promote global digital citizenship. MAY 1, 2010 BLUE BEAR Where’s the Bear?
ISTE created a fun way to connect with ed tech colleagues around the world and win fun prizes by entering a photo into a “Where’s the Bear?” contest!
Here's how it works: Step 1: Download your Blue Bear here. Step 2: Take photos of the Blue Bear with any of the categories below in mind: 1-Ed Tech in Action, 2-At the Workplace, 3-Exploring the World Step 3: Upload the photo to the "Where's the Bear" Flickr group. Deadline: June 15, 2010
The winner from each category will receive their choice of an iPod Touch or digital camera.
To receive updates on this contest, follow @isteconnects on Twitter, and become a fan of ISTE on Facebook.
I am thinking of a theme involving Elvis, Blue Bear and some blue suede shoes. When I get my entry ready, I will post it here. MAY2, 2010 NETS STANDARDS
ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) were developed as a roadmap to help measure proficiency and set goals for what students, teachers, and administrators should know and be able to do with technology in education. 49 of the 50 U.S. states have adopted, adapted, or referenced ISTE’s NETS in state department of education documents.
ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards for Students (2007) help students prepare to work, live, and contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities. The standards identify several higher-order thinking skills and digital citizenship as critical for students to learn effectively for a lifetime and live productively in our emerging global society. Below are the 6 NETS standards for students.
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Younger students may have a hard time understanding these standard categories. Teachers may wish to use the following "student-friendly" category names:
Creativity and Innovation
Communication & Collaboration
Research & Information Fluency
Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, & Decision Making
Digital Citizenship
Technology Operations & Concepts
MAY 4, 2010 ISTE•VISION
The ISTE conference is so large that it is impossible to attend every keynote speech, much less 10% of the breakout sessions. Choosing from the available sessions is difficult because there are so many great sessions occurring simultaneously. I used to feel that I learned a lot at every conference, but that I also missed out on so many good talks.
Thank goodness for ISTEVision. ISTE has been streaming sessions live as well as recording sessions to put up on ISTEVision for a couple of years. Now I can watch the recorded keynotes, popular sessions, digital stories, popular machinima, contest and events, youth voices, etc all throughout the year! It is wonderful to catch up on sessions I could not attend as well as review those sessions I did attend.
Check out ISTEVision to hear from popular educational technologists, popular technology conference speakers, teachers, students, and much more!
Listed below are some of ISTE 2009 (known as NECC 2009) categories of recorded sessions:
MAY 5, 2010 ISTE DAILY CONFERENCE NEWSLETTER, "DAILY LEADER"
The ISTE conference is huge. There is so much going on at the conference that nobody can really keep up on everything. ISTE publishes a daily newsletter for conference goers to point out schedule changes, special meetings, sponsor activities, and stories about what's happened and what's coming up in the onsite ISTE community.
We can pick up your free copy of ISTE's official onsite newspaper each day at locations around the conference center, including the transportation bay, ISTE Central, the Info Booth, and the registration area. The pdf's of the newsletters are available for download on the ISTE website. This is a great way to see what is going on!
MAY 6, 2010 EXHIBITION HALL
Over 500 vendors set up exhibits at ISTE. It is not only educational to wander through the exhibit hall, it is a lot of fun. Some of my favorite exhibitors are the Library of Congress, NASA, ESRI, Cisco, SMART, Apple and Promethean. Exhibitors will demo their products, offer support tips, and present "how-to' sessions. Below is a chart showing an exhibitor profile. There are more educational software vendors than any other category of vendor.
The picture below does not begin to show how massive the hall is. But you can see how crowded it is. Although it is enlightening to spend time in the exhibition hall, I always feel a bit guilty knowing I am missing some awesome keynote presentations and/or breakout sessions.
Nevertheless it is important to see the latest and greatest products. Here is the link for the 2010 ISTE exhibitors. Click here for the interactive floorplan to see where the exhibitors are located. MAY 7, 2010 POSTER - GLOBAL COLLABORATION- STUDENT SHOWCASE SESSIONS
In addition to the hundreds of breakout sessions at the ISTE conference, there are hundreds of Student Showcase/Teacher Showcase poster sessions.
It is a really wonderful experience to walk through the poster sessions area. Students demo some amazing projects. I like to take my camera and take pictures of interesting poster sessions, Here is a list of this year's Student Showcase sessions.
A few of the poster session titles that I plan to see this year are:
Science on the Web: Where It Is and How to Find It
Integrated Research: Engaging Questions, Higher-Level Thinking, and Powerful Learning
Podcast and Vodcast Projects for Chemistry and Biology
Empowering Students with Web 2.0 to Create, Collaborate, and Communicate
Tech Camp: Teaching Students Web 2.0 and Multimedia Publishing
Data and Tech Tools for Systemic District Improvement and Planning
MAY 8, 2010 SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER HALL DAVIDSON, DISCOVERY EDUCATION
Throughout the conference hall, several large rooms that seat upwards of 350 people are designated as "spotlight speaker" rooms. You will never go wrong attending a spotlight speakers's presentation. One of my favorite spotlight speakers is Hall Davidson. He understands the online learning landscape, future trends, and emerging technologies. He fires up the audience with his great sense of humor, enthusiasm and love of kids.
Hall Davidson taught middle and high school English, mathematics, Spanish, and bilingual mathematics. He left the classroom to teach math on television in Los Angeles on an Emmy-winning program and spent 20 years at PBS stations teaching and leading staff developments in person and on-air. He frequently contributes articles to national educational publications.
Hall provides links to his presentations and handouts. I like that his provides links to ALL the talks he gives throughout the year. If you get a chance to go to ISTE, look for Hall Davidson!
Here is a sample of Hall's presentation style. This video available on Google Video, and embedded here, is part of a talk he gave on KOCE-TV entitled "Copyright for Educators".
MAY 9, 2010 ETAN - EDTECH ACTION NETWORK
Funding for classroom technology is in jeopardy. President Obama's budget for FY11 provides no direct funding for education technology programs. Instead, it zeros out the Enhancing Education Through Technology program, the only source of direct support for ed tech in many states and districts. Below is a chart showing that EETT funding has decreased from $700 million to almost $0 between 2002 and 2011.
Congress doesn't have to agree to the President's budget recommendations. The EdTech Action Network (ETAN) is one of ISTE's educational technology advocacy groups which encourages teachers to tell their senators and representatives what they think is at stake.
ETAN provides a forum for educators and others to engage in the political process and project a unified voice in support of a common cause – improving teaching and learning through the systemic use of technology. ETAN’s mission is to influence public policy-makers at the federal, state and local levels and to increase public investment in the competitiveness of America’s classrooms and students.
Today I sent an email to Jim Matheson and Orrin Hatch by using this link at the ETAN website to ask for support restoring EETT funds to at least $500 million in the FY11 appropriations process.
By visiting the ETAN website or joining (free) ETAN you can receive updates on current and future legislation on educational technology issues. MAY 10, 2010 BRING YOUR OWN LAPTOP SESSIONS
Bring Your Own Laptop (BYOL) and Open Source Lab sessions are included in the regular conference registration and do not require additional fees; however, pre-registration is required due to limited seating. To ensure availability for as many people as possible, we are allowed to register for one BYOL and one Open Source Lab session per day.
I have preregistered for the following BYOL sessions:
Getting the Most from Your iPhone: Apps, Tips, and Tricks
Google Wave for the K–12 Classroom
Collaborating with Google Apps in the 21st-Century Classroom
I found that the BYOL sessions were so helpful because I could actually work along with the instructor a he/she gave their presentation. All of the BYOL sessions are now sold out. Neverthless, people who did not sign up for a BYOL might still be able to attend. They would need to queue up outside the session and wait for all ticketed conferene goers to enter. 5 minutes before the session begins, those in the queue are allowed to enter--that is until the room is at capacity.
BYOL sessions have been such a big hit at ISTE that we started having them at our state conference, UCET, this year. MAY11, 2010 TWEET FOR EDTECH TOMORROW
Join the campaign! Tomorrow, advocates from across the country are tweeting for education technology funding. Funding for classroom technology is in jeopardy, but together we can make our tweets heard and urge Congress to fund the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program at $500 million for FY 2011. President Obama provided no funding for the program in his budget, but Congress does not have to agree with this recommendation.
Tweet these sample messages throughout the day, or create your own. Encourage your neighbors and colleagues to join the twitterfest, and if you have a blog, spread the word that way.
Here are some sample tweets, mostly under 100 characters so there's room to retweet and personalize a bit. Or, make up your own!
Support innovation in learning & teaching. Fund #edtech at $500m
Our schools need 21st century education, #EETT. Fund #edtech at $500 m
No funding for #edtech? No prep for 21st century. Fund #EETT at $500m
I support #edtech. I vote. Fund #EETT at $500m in 2011
As a principal/teacher/parent I know our kids need #edtech skills. Fund #EETT at $500m
Together, we can make our voices heard! MAY 12, 2010 ISTE KEYNOTE - JEAN FRANCOIS RISCHARD FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK
Jean-François Rischard, an economist, lawyer, and former vice president at the World Bank, will be the 2010 ISTE Keynote Speaker.
In his books “High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them,” he discusses the urgent environmental, economic and societal crises the world is facing. He says that the world community will require new approaches if we are to succeed in conquering them in time. Dr. Rischard believes it is critical for today’s students to understand the world around them in order to tackle the challenges it presents. “The next generation must come to see themselves first as global citizens, second as national citizens,”
I watched a video of Dr. Rischard discussing a second Industrial Revolution, that of technology and communications. He says that technology transforms time and distance and makes knowledge the biggest factor of production. He gives the example of Bangalore, India producing $15 billion worth of software services. His opinion is that people, companies, and countries have to be agile, good at networking. We no longer compete with just the man next door for a jobs and resources, but with people all over the globe.
At ISTE, Dr. Rischard will deliver his perspective on how his life's work and 21st Century global education systems can join forces to shape the future. I am very excited to hear him speak. I think this will be highly motivating. MAY 13, 2010 CLOSING SPEAKER - DR. JEFF PIONTEK
I am really looking forward to hearing the closing speaker at ISTE. I was not familiar with his work when I first heard his name. That may sound like an unusual thing to say. Let me explain.
This year ISTE decided to tap the wisdom of the crowd and opened up voting to select the closing keynote speaker. The options were Daniel Pink, Gary Stager, Alan November, Peter Reynolds and Jeff Piontek. That is a pretty heavy duty list of names!
The speaker choices were especially interesting to me as all of these gentlemen, save Dr. Piontek, were on my list as possible speakers at our 2011 UCET conference and I had researched them quite in depth.
Dr. Piontek is "Head of School" at the Hawaii Technology Academy (HAT). He has written a couple of books that sound pretty interesting and that are getting a lot of buzz in the Twittersphere and blogosphere:
Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, Oh My! Electronic Media in the Classroom
Educating Jetson’s Children in Flintstone Schools
So....I am curious to see why 35% of members chose Dr. Piontek as the closing speaker. I think he will bring an interesting focus from his time as Director of Instructional and Informational Technology at a school in New York and his current psoition as Head of School at HAT.
By the way, my choice for speaker was Daniel Pink. I read his book, Drive, and ever since I have wanted to hear him speak. Well, maybe next year. But for now, I am looking forward to hearing Dr. Piontek. MAY 15, 2010 ISTE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (sigs)
ISTE members may join a variety of special interest groups (sigs) to connect with colleagues who focus on a particular area of educational technology. The special interest groups provide professional development opportunities, podcasts, webinars, conferences, etc throughout the year. Members can also participate in sig wikis, listserves, and Nings. Joinging ISTE sigs has been a great way to get information on my areas of interest throughout the year.
MAY 16, 2010 ISTE BOOKSTORE
ISTE Bookstore is a great place for educational technologists to find books on topics of interest. The catalog is available as a book catalog or as a pdf.
This year there are several ISTE books that I plan to purchase. One of them is Retool Your School. The authors James Lerman and Ronique Hicks, and eight other Google Certified Teachers discuss why Google Applications are the best free online learning tools available today. I have been using Google docs for a few years and love them. i am interested to read more about schools that have implemented Google Apps school wide. The book description indicates that this book will discuss some school success stories using Google docs. In addition there are several chapters on how to transform communication, collaboration, and creativity in the school and classroom. It looks like a great read.
The book is not yet available, so I have signed up for the "Notify Me" option. I want to get it as soon as it comes out. MAY 17, 2010 TICKETED WORKSHOPS ISTE offers ticketed workshops before and during the conference. These workshops fall into 3 formats:
Here is a list of workshops that are offered: workshop pdfs
BYOL(w)—(Bring Your Own Laptop) Participants bring their own laptops to use during the workshop. Specific prerequisite hardware or software may be needed.
Lab-Based—Workshop takes place in a computer lab with one participant to a computer.
Seminar/Demo—Content is primarily delivered in a demonstration, panel discussion, or lecture format with perhaps some activity-based content..
Ticketed workshops cost anywhere between $99 and $250. I am taking a full day workshop on sunday, Google for Educators. The workshop will be taught be certified Google educators.
I am really looking forward to it! JUNE 26, 2010 ISTE AFFILIATE MEETING
I attended a day long affiliate meeting on Saturday. I really enjoyed meeting other affiliate leaders from other states. I got some great idea on a few things such as a conference ap that is similar to the ISTE conference app. The one we currently use does not incorproate hyperlinks as well as it could. So we may look at this new app to see if it might serve us a little better.
A conference app from Core App.
Vendor scholarships
Vendor showcases-charge an additional fee for vendors to participate
Vendors have to present with a teacher who is using their products
JUNE 27, 2010 GOOGLE WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS
The Google Workshop for Teachers began with swag. Google pens, a Google pin, Google water bottle and so on. Lots of fun
The instructors are from CUE, Computer Using Educators out of Walnut, California. They are all certified Google Instructors.
Here is the link to all of the material we used today:
GOOGLE SEARCH: WHEEL AND TIMELINE
We began with Google search. Many people are not familiar with search options such as wonder Wheel and Timeline. We started by seaching for Sarah Plain and Tall. Here are the Wonder Wheel results as well as the Timeline results.
Wonder Wheel
Timeline
GOOGLE SQUARED:
Google Squared extracts data from Web pages and presents them in search results as squares in an online spreadsheet. Let's look at a Google Squared search for the term "whales": SEARCHING FOR IMAGES: Advanced Options
Let's search for the term "frog". Here's what we see:
Search results for "frog"
Choose one image, Find similar images
GOOGLE DOCS: USING THE MAP GADGET WITH SPREADSHEET DATA
I love using the map gadget with Google spreadsheet data. Here's how it workis:
Use the Map Gadget to add interactive maps to your spreadsheets. Just follow these steps:
In a column of your spreadsheet, enter the addresses you want to map. If you want display a tooltip when you click a location in the map, add the tooltip text to an adjacent column.
Highlight the cells where you entered data in step 1.
Go to Insert > Gadget.
In the Add a Gadget window, scroll to Map and click the Add to your spreadsheet button.
The gadget menu appears in your spreadsheet. In the 'Range' field, enter the column names where you added data in step 1.
In the 'Title' field, create a title for your map.
Click Apply. The map appears in your spreadsheet.
EDITING A GOOGLE MAP:
The workshop attendees added their favorite place to the map. We also changed the icon to an image of the place. We also added a vido to each place. It was really fun seeing peoples' favorite places in the world. I really enjoyed this part of the class.
Add a place marker identifying your favorite place.
Add content to the place marker using the rich text editing tools.
Advanced: Change the icon
Even more advanced: Add an image or other media to the place marker using the HTML editor.
JUNE 28, 2010 LIGHTSPEED TECHNOLOGY LUNCHEON: KEVIN HONEYCUTT
Kevin was the speaker at a LightSpeed Technology Luncheon that I attended. I was particularly interested to meet him because he will be the speaker at our UCET Conference this coming spring.
He was not only delightful and fun, he had such a good message about wired learners. Here is a link to his talk that I downloaded from his wesite, kevinhoneycutt.org.
Here is a link to Kevin's talk called Teaching wired learners1.pdf. HALL DAVIDSON
"From California and Texas to the Atlantic, trailblazing states, districts and classrooms have begun a serious conversion to digital--a move from trees to bits. Moving classroom practice more deeply into digital resources provides major benefits for differentiation, extended learning, assessment, remediation, and data gathering for effectiveness. Far beyond text-bound PDFs, digital resources offer links, translations, expansions, and incorporate the wild energy of Web 2.0 tools. The different needs of learners are more easily met and digital resources foster networking, innovation, and curriculum support. Digital assignments and assessments move from white boards to mobile student pockets. A snapshot of what can be done right now, and a preview of where digital is heading." (From Discovery Learning Speakers' Bureau)
Hall's presentation is available as the following link: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ISTEDeepDive JUNE 29, 2010 ALAN NOVEMBER: STUDENTS AS CONTRIBUTORS
Alan discussed six highly motivating learning jobs: tutorial designers, official scribes, researchers, global communicators, learning documentary producers, and solvers of real problems.
The six learning jobs will be outlined:
Tutorial Designers
Official Scribes
Researchers
Global Communicators
Learning Documentary Producers
Solvers of Real Problems
Here is a link to his resources for this talk: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/digital-learning-farm/ VENDOR AREA This year it was a challenge to make it through the vendor area. It was in a massive vendor exhibition hall. I had a very sore foot. So I checked out some vendors we deal with frequently and then I sat through a couple of presentations at the Google booth. I wanted to meet Jamie Casap, as he is going to be one our spotlight speakers at UCET.
Jaime is a Business Development Manager at Google. He spoke about how schools could begin using Google Apps for Education. I am pretty excited about that possibility in our own district. After taking the Google Teacher's Workshop, I can see that Google Apps would save us a lot of money on software as well as allow teachers access student work easily and seamlessly.
Jaime is willing to do a keynote or a spotlight session. He said if he does a keynote he will make his remarks accessible to a general audience. If he does a spotlight, he could focus on Google Apps for Education.
I also watched a demo on innovative ideas for using Google forms, engaging math through Google Earth, using Google Wave, and Google Sites. I am already an avid user of Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Forms.
I do hope that our district will continue to investigate adapting Google Apps for Education. LESLIE FISHER: GADGETS
Leslie Fisher is always a sure bet at the ISTE conference. She always shows practical websites and gadgets that are popular and helpful. This year I attended her Gadgets session. For the most part I was aware of the websites and gadget she discussed. Here is the link to her presentation.
Here are my favorite websites she discussed: www.tripit.com: I used this site for my ISTE trip so I was familiar with it. It is great. Here is what it does:
Build your itinerary: Email TripIt your travel plans airline, hotel and more—it doesn't matter where you book.
Get Organized: TripIt organizes your plans in a master travel itinerary that's easy to share and access.
Stay informed: Automatically monitor your TripIt itineraries and get alerts about any travel delays with TripIt Pro.
http://www.zamzar.com
Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software ? Go to Zamzar and give it a try. It's a quick 4 step process:
Enter your email address to receive converted files
Convert.
You receive an e-mail with a link to your new file when the conversion process is done. It's as easy as that. Zamzar is one of my favorite sites! SONY CYBERSHOT
Looking for the latest and greatest in digital cameras? Leslie recommends the Sony Cybershot WX1B
This camera has a 10.2 MP camera with 5x optical zoom. It shoots ten frames per second results in crisp and clear images like you have never seen before.
This digital camera includes a Sweep Panorama. Although this name had any special meaning to me, this means that you can press the shutter and sweep the camera in any direction, the camera will then take 100 images and the place them together to make an extra wide and extra high quality image in just a few seconds. This is a feature that I want to try!
If you're looking for a high quality digital camera then Sony’s cyber-shot DSC-WX1 & WX1B are highly recommended for both image quality and performance. Being very well priced proves that you can still get a great picture without buying a very expensive digital camera. Price: $249. App Shopper is a great place to find apps for your iPhone, iPod or iPad. The Apple store does not work well for me. It think it is often times hard to find those good education apps. App Shopper shows the latest and greatest apps in an easy-to-understand way. Gie it a try. You will love it! iPAD The one technology item I saw everywhere at ISTE was the iPad. I had a chance to use one and I am sold. This is going to be my next purchase. The screen is so easy to use and the display is excellent.
In every session I attended I sat next to or near an iPad user, so I had plenty of opportunities to see the iPad being used by different people. I asked quite a few iPad owners their opinions about the iPad. Most iPad owners purchased the 16 GB model without the data plan. Most users plan to use it at home with their wireless network.
The keyboard was easy to use, but it takes up half the screen. Quite a few people said they read books with it, watch Netflix, and have their young children play games. In fact, these are the precise reasons I want the iPad. OVERALL IMPRESSION OF ISTE
ISTE is always overwhelming because so much is going on in the vendor areas, the sessions, special interest groups and good old fashioned networking. I came away rejuvenated and ready to begin a new school year.
The three big things I take back to Utah from ISTE are: a sense of excitement about our next UCET conference , new ideas about using Google apps for education, and new technology educators (friends) in my personal learning network. THANK YOU TOUCET
As the incoming president of UCET 2011, UCET paid my way to ISTE. I was able to meet our conference speakers for next March and meet up with quite a few UCET board members. I think my attendance at the ISTE affiliate meeting was extremely valuable. The 81 affiliate leaders shared so many good ideas with each other. Our president-elect, Jared Covili, also attended the affiliate meeting. So between the two of us, I think we have a pretty good handle on a couple new ideas we want to bring to the table at the UCET retreat this July: a good conference app and some possible UCET conference themes for 2011.
A big thank you to UCET for this opportunity to attend ISTE.
ISTE MOBILE APP
Long before I attend an ISTE conference, I research the schedule for workshops and sessions that I might attend. I like to use the latest technology available to help me make good choices. The conference is huge and there is so much going on all the time that unless I make decisions in advance, I might miss out on some unique opportunities to network with other educators. And that leads me to discuss a new app for either the iPod or iPhone--ISTE Mobile app.
Using the free ISTE Mobile app, conference goers can network with other educators, get up-to-the-minute news through blogs and Twitter updates, and gain access to a valuable set of educational resources such as ISTE's ed tech standards, articles, and podcasts.
Sometimes a session is full or may not align with my expectations, so I will be able to find other sessions by strand, author, date and time. How exciting that this app is available this year! Teachers who are not attending ISTE will find the app a useful way to connect and feel part of the conference.
APRIL 20, 2010
REGIONAL RECEPTION INVITATION
We have been invited to participate in a regional reception (CO, AZ, NM, UT & WY) at the ISTE Conference on Tuesday, June 29th, from 5:30-7:30 pm. AZTEA has organized it and has 4 sponsors which are covering the cost for the event. It will be held at the Lucky Strike Bowling Alley which is only 3 blocks from the convention center. There will be no cost to us and any UCET member is invited to attend. Register here: http://tinyurl.com/ISTERegRec.
APRIL 21, 2010
AFFILIATE MEETING
Affiliate leaders are planning the Affiliate Annual Meeting to be held at ISTE 2010 on Saturday, June 26. Designated representatives and liaisons as well as other leaders from ISTE’s 81 Affiliates are invited to attend. It is a full day of networking, training, collaborating, and learning. It is the one day per year Affiliate leaders can meet face to face. As 2011 President-elect of UCET, I will attend the Affiliate meeting along with Jared Covili, 2012 President-elect.
Each Affiliate member brings a gift basket. At the meeting, we trade gift baskets with another affiliate. I am looking for ideas for items to put in the Utah basket that represent "the real Utah". So far I have: a CD of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, salt water taffy, and a Snowbird Sk Resort hat. All Affiliates put in some kind of alcoholic beverage. I think I will put in some water bottles. :-)
APRIL 29, 2010
ISTE MAGAZINE: LEADING & LEARNING
ISTE's member magazine features practical ideas for using today's technology tools to improve teaching and learning, and for integrating technology appropriately into classrooms, curriculum, and administration: Leading & Learning.
Leading up to the ISTE conference, I think one of the most important articles this month is "Voices Carry: Top 10 in 2010 Ed Tech Advocacy Issues"
ISTE has identified 10 ed tech priorities that U.S. decision makers should consider in 2010:
1. Technology in education is the backbone of school improvement.
2. Leverage educational technology as a gateway to college and career readiness.
3. Ensure technology experts are infused throughout our schools and classrooms.
4. Invest in preservice education technology.
5. Classroom technology skills are a prerequisite to being a highly effective teacher.
6. Leverage technology to scale improvement.
7. Provide high-speed broadband for all.
8. Boost student learning through data and assessment efforts.
9. Invest in ongoing research and development.
10. Promote global digital citizenship.
MAY 1, 2010
BLUE BEAR
Where’s the Bear?
ISTE created a fun way to connect with ed tech colleagues around the world and win fun prizes by entering a photo into a “Where’s the Bear?” contest!
Here's how it works:
Step 1: Download your Blue Bear here.
Step 2: Take photos of the Blue Bear with any of the categories below in mind: 1-Ed Tech in Action, 2-At the Workplace, 3-Exploring the World
Step 3: Upload the photo to the "Where's the Bear" Flickr group.
Deadline: June 15, 2010
The winner from each category will receive their choice of an iPod Touch or digital camera.
To receive updates on this contest, follow @isteconnects on Twitter, and become a fan of ISTE on Facebook.
I am thinking of a theme involving Elvis, Blue Bear and some blue suede shoes. When I get my entry ready, I will post it here.
MAY 2, 2010
NETS STANDARDS
ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) were developed as a roadmap to help measure proficiency and set goals for what students, teachers, and administrators should know and be able to do with technology in education. 49 of the 50 U.S. states have adopted, adapted, or referenced ISTE’s NETS in state department of education documents.
MAY 3, 2010
NETS FOR STUDENTS
ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards for Students (2007) help students prepare to work, live, and contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities. The standards identify several higher-order thinking skills and digital citizenship as critical for students to learn effectively for a lifetime and live productively in our emerging global society. Below are the 6 NETS standards for students.
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Younger students may have a hard time understanding these standard categories. Teachers may wish to use the following "student-friendly" category names:
& Decision Making
MAY 4, 2010
ISTE•VISION
The ISTE conference is so large that it is impossible to attend every keynote speech, much less 10% of the breakout sessions. Choosing from the available sessions is difficult because there are so many great sessions occurring simultaneously. I used to feel that I learned a lot at every conference, but that I also missed out on so many good talks.
Thank goodness for ISTEVision. ISTE has been streaming sessions live as well as recording sessions to put up on ISTEVision for a couple of years. Now I can watch the recorded keynotes, popular sessions, digital stories, popular machinima, contest and events, youth voices, etc all throughout the year! It is wonderful to catch up on sessions I could not attend as well as review those sessions I did attend.
Check out ISTEVision to hear from popular educational technologists, popular technology conference speakers, teachers, students, and much more!
Listed below are some of ISTE 2009 (known as NECC 2009) categories of recorded sessions:
MAY 5, 2010
ISTE DAILY CONFERENCE NEWSLETTER, "DAILY LEADER"
The ISTE conference is huge. There is so much going on at the conference that nobody can really keep up on everything. ISTE publishes a daily newsletter for conference goers to point out schedule changes, special meetings, sponsor activities, and stories about what's happened and what's coming up in the onsite ISTE community.We can pick up your free copy of ISTE's official onsite newspaper each day at locations around the conference center, including the transportation bay, ISTE Central, the Info Booth, and the registration area. The pdf's of the newsletters are available for download on the ISTE website. This is a great way to see what is going on!
MAY 6, 2010
EXHIBITION HALL
Over 500 vendors set up exhibits at ISTE. It is not only educational to wander through the exhibit hall, it is a lot of fun. Some of my favorite exhibitors are the Library of Congress, NASA, ESRI, Cisco, SMART, Apple and Promethean. Exhibitors will demo their products, offer support tips, and present "how-to' sessions. Below is a chart showing an exhibitor profile. There are more educational software vendors than any other category of vendor.
The picture below does not begin to show how massive the hall is. But you can see how crowded it is. Although it is enlightening to spend time in the exhibition hall, I always feel a bit guilty knowing I am missing some awesome keynote presentations and/or breakout sessions.
Nevertheless it is important to see the latest and greatest products. Here is the link for the 2010 ISTE exhibitors. Click here for the interactive floorplan to see where the exhibitors are located.
MAY 7, 2010
POSTER - GLOBAL COLLABORATION- STUDENT SHOWCASE SESSIONS
It is a really wonderful experience to walk through the poster sessions area. Students demo some amazing projects. I like to take my camera and take pictures of interesting poster sessions, Here is a list of this year's Student Showcase sessions.
A few of the poster session titles that I plan to see this year are:
MAY 8, 2010
SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER HALL DAVIDSON, DISCOVERY EDUCATION
Throughout the conference hall, several large rooms that seat upwards of 350 people are designated as "spotlight speaker" rooms. You will never go wrong attending a spotlight speakers's presentation. One of my favorite spotlight speakers is Hall Davidson. He understands the online learning landscape, future trends, and emerging technologies. He fires up the audience with his great sense of humor, enthusiasm and love of kids.
Hall Davidson taught middle and high school English, mathematics, Spanish, and bilingual mathematics. He left the classroom to teach math on television in Los Angeles on an Emmy-winning program and spent 20 years at PBS stations teaching and leading staff developments in person and on-air. He frequently contributes articles to national educational publications.
Hall provides links to his presentations and handouts. I like that his provides links to ALL the talks he gives throughout the year. If you get a chance to go to ISTE, look for Hall Davidson!
Here is a sample of Hall's presentation style. This video available on Google Video, and embedded here, is part of a talk he gave on KOCE-TV entitled
"Copyright for Educators".
MAY 9, 2010
ETAN - EDTECH ACTION NETWORK
Funding for classroom technology is in jeopardy. President Obama's budget for FY11 provides no direct funding for education technology programs. Instead, it zeros out the Enhancing Education Through Technology program, the only source of direct support for ed tech in many states and districts. Below is a chart showing that EETT funding has decreased from $700 million to almost $0 between 2002 and 2011.
Congress doesn't have to agree to the President's budget recommendations. The EdTech Action Network (ETAN) is one of ISTE's educational technology advocacy groups which encourages teachers to tell their senators and representatives what they think is at stake.
ETAN provides a forum for educators and others to engage in the political process and project a unified voice in support of a common cause – improving teaching and learning through the systemic use of technology. ETAN’s mission is to influence public policy-makers at the federal, state and local levels and to increase public investment in the competitiveness of America’s classrooms and students.
Today I sent an email to Jim Matheson and Orrin Hatch by using this link at the ETAN website to ask for support restoring EETT funds to at least $500 million in the FY11 appropriations process.
By visiting the ETAN website or joining (free) ETAN you can receive updates on current and future legislation on educational technology issues.
MAY 10, 2010
BRING YOUR OWN LAPTOP SESSIONS
I have preregistered for the following BYOL sessions:
I found that the BYOL sessions were so helpful because I could actually work along with the instructor a he/she gave their presentation. All of the BYOL sessions are now sold out. Neverthless, people who did not sign up for a BYOL might still be able to attend. They would need to queue up outside the session and wait for all ticketed conferene goers to enter. 5 minutes before the session begins, those in the queue are allowed to enter--that is until the room is at capacity.
BYOL sessions have been such a big hit at ISTE that we started having them at our state conference, UCET, this year.
MAY 11, 2010
TWEET FOR EDTECH TOMORROW
Join the campaign! Tomorrow, advocates from across the country are tweeting for education technology funding. Funding for classroom technology is in jeopardy, but together we can make our tweets heard and urge Congress to fund the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program at $500 million for FY 2011. President Obama provided no funding for the program in his budget, but Congress does not have to agree with this recommendation.
Tweet these sample messages throughout the day, or create your own. Encourage your neighbors and colleagues to join the twitterfest, and if you have a blog, spread the word that way.
Here are some sample tweets, mostly under 100 characters so there's room to retweet and personalize a bit. Or, make up your own!
Together, we can make our voices heard!
MAY 12, 2010
ISTE KEYNOTE - JEAN FRANCOIS RISCHARD
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK
Jean-François Rischard, an economist, lawyer, and former vice president at the World Bank, will be the 2010 ISTE Keynote Speaker.
In his books “High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them,” he discusses the urgent environmental, economic and societal crises the world is facing. He says that the world community will require new approaches if we are to succeed in conquering them in time. Dr. Rischard believes it is critical for today’s students to understand the world around them in order to tackle the challenges it presents. “The next generation must come to see themselves first as global citizens, second as national citizens,”
I watched a video of Dr. Rischard discussing a second Industrial Revolution, that of technology and communications. He says that technology transforms time and distance and makes knowledge the biggest factor of production. He gives the example of Bangalore, India producing $15 billion worth of software services. His opinion is that people, companies, and countries have to be agile, good at networking. We no longer compete with just the man next door for a jobs and resources, but with people all over the globe.
At ISTE, Dr. Rischard will deliver his perspective on how his life's work and 21st Century global education systems can join forces to shape the future. I am very excited to hear him speak. I think this will be highly motivating.
MAY 13, 2010
CLOSING SPEAKER - DR. JEFF PIONTEK
This year ISTE decided to tap the wisdom of the crowd and opened up voting to select the closing keynote speaker. The options were Daniel Pink, Gary Stager, Alan November, Peter Reynolds and Jeff Piontek. That is a pretty heavy duty list of names!
The speaker choices were especially interesting to me as all of these gentlemen, save Dr. Piontek, were on my list as possible speakers at our 2011 UCET conference and I had researched them quite in depth.
Dr. Piontek is "Head of School" at the Hawaii Technology Academy (HAT). He has written a couple of books that sound pretty interesting and that are getting a lot of buzz in the Twittersphere and blogosphere:
So....I am curious to see why 35% of members chose Dr. Piontek as the closing speaker. I think he will bring an interesting focus from his time as Director of Instructional and Informational Technology at a school in New York and his current psoition as Head of School at HAT.
By the way, my choice for speaker was Daniel Pink. I read his book, Drive, and ever since I have wanted to hear him speak. Well, maybe next year. But for now, I am looking forward to hearing Dr. Piontek.
MAY 15, 2010
ISTE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (sigs)
ISTE members may join a variety of special interest groups (sigs) to connect with colleagues who focus on a particular area of educational technology. The special interest groups provide professional development opportunities, podcasts, webinars, conferences, etc throughout the year. Members can also participate in sig wikis, listserves, and Nings. Joinging ISTE sigs has been a great way to get information on my areas of interest throughout the year.
ISTE has 20 sig groups:
Administrators
Arts Educators
Computing Teachers
Digital Equity
Digital Storytelling
Independent Schools
Innovative Learning Technologies
Interactive Video Conferencing
International Schools
Media Specialists
Mobile Learning
Online Learning
Special Education Technology
Teacher Educators
Technology Coordinators
Technology in Afterschool Programs
Virtual Environments
MAY 16, 2010
ISTE BOOKSTORE
ISTE Bookstore is a great place for educational technologists to find books on topics of interest. The catalog is available as a book catalog or as a pdf.
This year there are several ISTE books that I plan to purchase. One of them is Retool Your School. The authors James Lerman and Ronique Hicks, and eight other Google Certified Teachers discuss why Google Applications are the best free online learning tools available today. I have been using Google docs for a few years and love them. i am interested to read more about schools that have implemented Google Apps school wide. The book description indicates that this book will discuss some school success stories using Google docs. In addition there are several chapters on how to transform communication, collaboration, and creativity in the school and classroom. It looks like a great read.
The book is not yet available, so I have signed up for the "Notify Me" option. I want to get it as soon as it comes out.
MAY 17, 2010
TICKETED WORKSHOPS
Here is a list of workshops that are offered: workshop pdfs
Ticketed workshops cost anywhere between $99 and $250. I am taking a full day workshop on sunday, Google for Educators. The workshop will be taught be certified Google educators.
I am really looking forward to it!
JUNE 26, 2010
ISTE AFFILIATE MEETING
I attended a day long affiliate meeting on Saturday. I really enjoyed meeting other affiliate leaders from other states. I got some great idea on a few things such as a conference ap that is similar to the ISTE conference app. The one we currently use does not incorproate hyperlinks as well as it could. So we may look at this new app to see if it might serve us a little better.
JUNE 27, 2010
GOOGLE WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS
The instructors are from CUE, Computer Using Educators out of Walnut, California. They are all certified Google Instructors.
Here is the link to all of the material we used today:
GOOGLE SEARCH: WHEEL AND TIMELINE
We began with Google search. Many people are not familiar with search options such as wonder Wheel and Timeline. We started by seaching for Sarah Plain and Tall. Here are the Wonder Wheel results as well as the Timeline results.
GOOGLE SQUARED:
Google Squared extracts data from Web pages and presents them in search results as squares in an online spreadsheet. Let's look at a Google Squared search for the term "whales":
SEARCHING FOR IMAGES: Advanced Options
Let's search for the term "frog". Here's what we see:
GOOGLE DOCS: USING THE MAP GADGET WITH SPREADSHEET DATA
I love using the map gadget with Google spreadsheet data. Here's how it workis:
Use the Map Gadget to add interactive maps to your spreadsheets. Just follow these steps:
EDITING A GOOGLE MAP:
The workshop attendees added their favorite place to the map. We also changed the icon to an image of the place. We also added a vido to each place. It was really fun seeing peoples' favorite places in the world. I really enjoyed this part of the class.
JUNE 28, 2010
LIGHTSPEED TECHNOLOGY LUNCHEON: KEVIN HONEYCUTT
He was not only delightful and fun, he had such a good message about wired learners. Here is a link to his talk that I downloaded from his wesite, kevinhoneycutt.org.
Here is a link to Kevin's talk called Teaching wired learners1.pdf.
"From California and Texas to the Atlantic, trailblazing states, districts and classrooms have begun a serious conversion to digital--a move from trees to bits. Moving classroom practice more deeply into digital resources provides major benefits for differentiation, extended learning, assessment, remediation, and data gathering for effectiveness. Far beyond text-bound PDFs, digital resources offer links, translations, expansions, and incorporate the wild energy of Web 2.0 tools. The different needs of learners are more easily met and digital resources foster networking, innovation, and curriculum support. Digital assignments and assessments move from white boards to mobile student pockets. A snapshot of what can be done right now, and a preview of where digital is heading." (From Discovery Learning Speakers' Bureau)
Hall's presentation is available as the following link: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ISTEDeepDive
JUNE 29, 2010
ALAN NOVEMBER: STUDENTS AS CONTRIBUTORS
Alan discussed six highly motivating learning jobs: tutorial designers, official scribes, researchers, global communicators, learning documentary producers, and solvers of real problems.
The six learning jobs will be outlined:
- Tutorial Designers
- Official Scribes
- Researchers
- Global Communicators
- Learning Documentary Producers
- Solvers of Real Problems
Here is a link to his resources for this talk:http://novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/digital-learning-farm/
VENDOR AREA
Jaime is a Business Development Manager at Google. He spoke about how schools could begin using Google Apps for Education. I am pretty excited about that possibility in our own district. After taking the Google Teacher's Workshop, I can see that Google Apps would save us a lot of money on software as well as allow teachers access student work easily and seamlessly.
Jaime is willing to do a keynote or a spotlight session. He said if he does a keynote he will make his remarks accessible to a general audience. If he does a spotlight, he could focus on Google Apps for Education.
I also watched a demo on innovative ideas for using Google forms, engaging math through Google Earth, using Google Wave, and Google Sites. I am already an avid user of Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Forms.
I do hope that our district will continue to investigate adapting Google Apps for Education.
LESLIE FISHER: GADGETS
Leslie Fisher is always a sure bet at the ISTE conference. She always shows practical websites and gadgets that are popular and helpful. This year I attended her Gadgets session. For the most part I was aware of the websites and gadget she discussed. Here is the link to her presentation.
Here are my favorite websites she discussed:
www.tripit.com: I used this site for my ISTE trip so I was familiar with it. It is great. Here is what it does:
http://www.zamzar.com
Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software ? Go to Zamzar and give it a try. It's a quick 4 step process:
- Select files or URL to convert
- Choose the format to convert to
- Enter your email address to receive converted files
- Convert.
You receive an e-mail with a link to your new file when the conversion process is done. It's as easy as that. Zamzar is one of my favorite sites!SONY CYBERSHOT
Looking for the latest and greatest in digital cameras? Leslie recommends the Sony Cybershot WX1B
This camera has a 10.2 MP camera with 5x optical zoom. It shoots ten frames per second results in crisp and clear images like you have never seen before.
This digital camera includes a Sweep Panorama. Although this name had any special meaning to me, this means that you can press the shutter and sweep the camera in any direction, the camera will then take 100 images and the place them together to make an extra wide and extra high quality image in just a few seconds. This is a feature that I want to try!
If you're looking for a high quality digital camera then Sony’s cyber-shot DSC-WX1 & WX1B are highly recommended for both image quality and performance. Being very well priced proves that you can still get a great picture without buying a very expensive digital camera. Price: $249.
iPAD
In every session I attended I sat next to or near an iPad user, so I had plenty of opportunities to see the iPad being used by different people. I asked quite a few iPad owners their opinions about the iPad. Most iPad owners purchased the 16 GB model without the data plan. Most users plan to use it at home with their wireless network.
The keyboard was easy to use, but it takes up half the screen. Quite a few people said they read books with it, watch Netflix, and have their young children play games. In fact, these are the precise reasons I want the iPad.
OVERALL IMPRESSION OF ISTE
ISTE is always overwhelming because so much is going on in the vendor areas, the sessions, special interest groups and good old fashioned networking. I came away rejuvenated and ready to begin a new school year.
The three big things I take back to Utah from ISTE are: a sense of excitement about our next UCET conference , new ideas about using Google apps for education, and new technology educators (friends) in my personal learning network.
THANK YOU TO UCET
As the incoming president of UCET 2011, UCET paid my way to ISTE. I was able to meet our conference speakers for next March and meet up with quite a few UCET board members. I think my attendance at the ISTE affiliate meeting was extremely valuable. The 81 affiliate leaders shared so many good ideas with each other. Our president-elect, Jared Covili, also attended the affiliate meeting. So between the two of us, I think we have a pretty good handle on a couple new ideas we want to bring to the table at the UCET retreat this July: a good conference app and some possible UCET conference themes for 2011.
A big thank you to UCET for this opportunity to attend ISTE.